I Sneezed My Ears Off! An April TR (Finished 09/04)

[coloredimage]

Awesome pics of Nick and Judy!! First time I'm seeing them in the parade and I can't wait to see them in Nov. I SO wish they'd do a M&G. WHY aren't they
BOG is one of our favorite restaurants and the West Wing is my favorite room We've eaten there a total of 7 times and managed to sit in the WW the majority of our visits.

I feel the same way! I wish they would do a M&G I'd be so happy if hey did! But since MiSi is the only way I can see them at the moment, I took...full advantage.

We've only eaten at BOG four times (3 together, and I ate there once last year with my aunt) but the West Wing's never been an option because of the time of day we were eating at. I'm so glad we got to go in there and can now say we've eaten in all three rooms lol. Though I do adore the paintings in the Rose Gallery

 

[coloredimage]

Part Three

So, we were leaving the park, and we were going to another park.

Now, let's just say this: I and Jey are very used to going between Epcot and Magic Kingdom. We almost always end up at MK at night but we generally take the bus from the hotel in the evenings after changing or we take the monorail from Epcot.

So we automatically got onto the Monorail and went to the Ticket and Transportation Center, thinking we could get to another park from there.





Yeah...we forgot they stopped that like two years ago.

But we did use the restrooms at the TTC and it was nice and clean and empty so, small victories!

So we got back to Magic Kingdom via the monorail and walked back through the people to the buses.

Where did we go? Well, I've already told you, but let's see if you paid any attention.







If your answer was Animal Kingdom, you would be correct.

I got randomly selected again, and commented on it (I was partially joking, but it was getting pretty annoying that I kept getting selected and Jey only had been once and we constantly walked in together). The security guard told me they were going to do it for everyone soon but...this was the last day I got selected, so at the very least the universe listened?

Oh well, we were inside and we were very happy!

We were also very close to passing out from dehydration. So we headed over to Pizzafari but got a little side tracked because we saw this guy out and about:







We got our water and sat down at Pizzafari for a little bit, just enjoying the water and the air conditioning. I refilled my cup with water and we walked out to head to our fastpass.

Now, when we were still in MK, we had decided that we were going to get rid of our Thunder FP and switch it for Dinosaur - the Thunder FP was just too late in the day for us to still get to Ak and enjoy the park before our dinner ADR. Our FP for Dinosaur was at 4 so we headed in that direction.



We watched this guy playing for a bit; he was really good and it let me finish my second cup of water. While we were standing there I got a text from Disney saying that Dinosaur was down and we could use our FP for anything else.

So we took them up on that! And headed over to our other favorite!





Once we got off we decided head over to Dinosaur and see if it was up yet. Since it was, we popped into that line. It was only like a 20 minute wait and we were riding around.



We didn't know what to do after this so Jey struck out towards Africa.



She led us to Dawa Bar and kind of stopped, so we walked over to see their specials.

It was actually a perfect time to get a drink - around 5-ish so we had about two hours to kill before dinner but didn't really have enough time to do anymore of the rides or any of the big shows AK has to offer. We had gotten to Africa when the band's set ended so going to Dawa meant we were there when they started again a few minutes later and were able to hear their entire set.



I got the Chenza cooler - tangerine lemonade and Snow Leopard vodka. It was perfect for the heat of the day! (don't let the fact I'm wearing my sweater fool you - it was hot, I just had no place to put it so I had it on the entire time).



Jey got the sugarcane mojito and loved it. I tried a bit of it and it was nice and refreshing.

We had one guy standing next to us on the side of the bar just staring at the bartender and even after she explained that she can only serve people from the front of the bar to keep things orderly he refused to move and finally left in a huff (after another man standing in line asked if the first man would like to get in line in front of him because he wouldn't get served standing where he was). Oh well. Once he left it was a nice relaxing time!

By the time we finished our drinks the band was back so we went over to watch their set





then began to head through the newer areas they had finished last summer in Africa since we hadn't seen them yet



I love all the random sayings all around; they are wonderful










We headed back to Asia to see if the sitar player was out, but first I had to stop and get another picture of the Tree of Life. I love how it looks in pictures



He was out so we listened to his set for a little bit


but by then it was getting close to six and we needed to get out of AK and get to dinner, so we scooted on out of the park and towards the buses.

Any guesses on where we ate dinner?

 

[amberg93]

Sorry you went out to the TCC for essentially just using the bathroom. Though Monorail rides are always nice, so there's that.

Ooh, Tarzan out and about? I'd have gotten distracted too.

Good call on just relaxing and listening to the music for a bit, it sounds really nice.

Oh man, I'm jealous that you went on Dinosaur since it'll be down in August.

Hmm... dinner guess. I'm going to say Sanaa.

 

[coloredimage]

Sorry you went out to the TCC for essentially just using the bathroom. Though Monorail rides are always nice, so there's that.

It's okay - I mean, it was nice to use a restroom that wasn't ridiculously packed so I guess silver lining?? And it tallied two extra monorail trips for the week so I'll take it!

Ooh, Tarzan out and about? I'd have gotten distracted too.

He is! And he was really good too - he spoke broken English and did minor sign language to interact with guests so he was really awesome to watch until standing in the sun got to be too much.

Good call on just relaxing and listening to the music for a bit, it sounds really nice.

It was lovely! I hope we can do it again sometime on an AK day because it was a great way to just spend time without just sitting around

Oh man, I'm jealous that you went on Dinosaur since it'll be down in August.

Oh no! I'd be sad Dinosaur is one of my favorites.

 

[ariane37]

A couple months ago someone wrote in their TR that they find it kind of weird that an almost naked man-Tarzan-is taking pictures with little girls and boys. I'd never thought about that or really considered that's he's the most naked character in the parks, but now whenever I see a picture of him strange things go through my head! I can't help it

I need to spend more time watching and listening to all the musical entertainment in AK. I think it'll be more on my mind when we go in Nov. since there will be all those new performers and parti's happenin'!

 

[coloredimage]

A couple months ago someone wrote in their TR that they find it kind of weird that an almost naked man-Tarzan-is taking pictures with little girls and boys. I'd never thought about that or really considered that's he's the most naked character in the parks, but now whenever I see a picture of him strange things go through my head! I can't help it

I need to spend more time watching and listening to all the musical entertainment in AK. I think it'll be more on my mind when we go in Nov. since there will be all those new performers and parti's happenin'!

omg, I didn't really think about that before - but I do know that's why they took him out for a while. It wasn't because of the kids though, let me tell you! (lol!) He is a much skinnier Tarzan then I remember them having when the movie first came out, probably for multiple reasons.

I love just relaxing and enjoying the music in AK - my only issue is that in the summer it's so hot that you can't really enjoy the music because you're sweating so much!

 

[coloredimage]

Part Four

We were on our way to dinner last time I left off. @amberg93 was completely right - we were going to Sanaa!

So way back when we were planning, this was initially going to be our big MK day. Then we got rid of our AK day about a month out, we lost our Tusker House breakfast. We love Tusker House but neither of us are really breakfast people, and when we go to AK we go in the morning and tend to have to leave by lunchtime because it gets hot no matter what time of year it is and we need to take a break. To keep with the "theme" of the meal we lost, we decided to do a meal at AKL - Jiko would have been too expensive, so I suggested Boma (which I had tried but Jey hasn't) or Sanaa. We both agreed Sanaa was so high on both of our "must do" lists that we jumped at the chance.

So, we got onto the bus to AKL and it came in like five minutes, so we were ridiculously early for our ADR. Which was fine with us, we've only ever been to the main lodge, not Kidani, so we were excited to explore!

So, enjoy my Kidani photo montage:













I mean, guys. We found a drum circle. That's how ridiculous and awesome this hotel is. We enjoyed them for a few minutes in the lounge, spent some time looking at the savannah from the lounge's balcony then sat in the lobby. We poked around the little general store and I found a pack of Star Wars pins similar to the Marvel pins I had bought at Caifornia Adventure this past summer. I love the weird little Pop look of them and I really wanted the Leia and Han ones because reason. Childhood reasons. I ended up only getting Leia but they're still cute. I'll probably end up going online and seeing if I can find the Han one:



Look, triplets!

Which may or may not have been what I said when I opened the bag.

Because I'm just that cool, guys, I swear.

We headed down to the restaurant and checked in at the desk.



We were seated fairly quickly and met by our waiter Michael. I wrote down his name with a smiley face next to it in my TR notebook because we was absolutely awesome! He was older and very knowledgable about the menu and the restaurant and came with a lot of suggestions for each course.

We also had a dinner guest:



Now, when we were talking about prices and what to bring, money-wise, for our tips and out of pocket expenses for food and drink, there was only one thing I wanted to get for an appetizer*: the bread service at Sanaa.

* This is technically not true - I would have loved to have gotten the soup at another of our meals this week but I decided not to because I got something else instead.

I guess I went on and on about the bread service a lot because Jey was teasing me about it during this whole day. It is a good thing that we wanted it because Michael talked it up and then left without really confirming that we wanted it.

Once he was gone I snapped this picture of the restaurant:



About two minutes later this was brought to our table:



This is what it looked like about twenty minutes later:



It seems like it's a lot, and it is, but we enjoyed tasting the flavors of the different dips with the plain naan bread (the hotter dips were near Jey, the sweeter near me, to give you an idea of how the flavors were put down) then trying different flavor mixings. When Michael came back to check on us he suggested some of the dips he liked to mix together so we tried that too.

So. Good. And so worth it. We basically finished all of it by the time our meals came, and wonderfully the sizes of the portions are small enough that we didn't get too full.

For her entree, Jey got Braaveleis, I believe, which she enjoyed.

I got the Potje.



I got the basmati rice, paneer tikka and butter chicken. I am the type of person who isn't too keen about my food touching but Michael suggested mixing the paneer tikka and butter chicken with the rice so I used one of the bread dishes as my mixer. It did taste really good all mixed together! I still only did a little rice and a little paneer, then a little rice and a little chicken. Oh well. Maybe someday I'll but used to it!

Our meal was yummy and we ate slowly so we didn't fill up too quickly and painfully. We knew we still had dessert coming after all!

We got the same thing for dessert:



The Afrika povu! Basically chocolate cake with a lot more chocolate. And so good!

Also it's got salted caramel on it which I am a sucker for so mix that with chocolate and I'm a little biased.

We went to Disney Springs for a quick errand after dinner since it was later and we knew we wouldn't make it back to any of the parks before they closed. I had to pick up a bag that I liked and wanted to use for the next couple of days as we knew we were going to be going commando without breaks and Jey needed to return her sweatshirt she had bought the first night we were there as the bottom seam had completely unraveled so she wanted to return it and switch it out with a different size. We literally ran into Tren-D, picked up my bag, then ran to World of Disney. They didn't have the sweatshirt there so we were going to have to return it the next day.

We were only in Disney Springs for like a half hour in total then hopped onto the boat back to the hotel.

Disney Springs from the water is seriously gorgeous. This picture does it no justice at all:



We were back in our room by 11, showered, and watched a little bit of Stacy before falling asleep.

 

[MarieLightning]

Not sure why I've never come in here before, and I don't have time to read through it right now, but subbing!

 

[amberg93]

Yay for guessing right!

Kidani looks beautiful. We really need to get over there because every picture I see of it makes me just sigh in envy.

It looks like you really enjoyed your meal at Sanaa, I hear great things about the bread service from everyone so when I go I'll definitely need to go ahead and try it!

Disney Springs looks like it has really been coming together. I'm excited to see it when we're there.

 

[MarieLightning]

Alright, I'm all caught up!

Lord do I miss the French Quarter. It's so hard too, because whenever we have the opportunity to try something above a Value, it's a good shot at trying a completely new resort (and attaining our far off goal of staying at every single resort XD) but then... trying something new means not going back to the French Quarter, and that's such a hard decision to make.

Your pictures are gorgeous, and I especially liked the ones from Animal Kingdom. I'm realizing how little time we've spent exploring and taking in the details of that park, especially the new section around the Harambe theater. Goals for August!

 

[coloredimage]

Yay for guessing right!

Kidani looks beautiful. We really need to get over there because every picture I see of it makes me just sigh in envy.

It looks like you really enjoyed your meal at Sanaa, I hear great things about the bread service from everyone so when I go I'll definitely need to go ahead and try it!

Disney Springs looks like it has really been coming together. I'm excited to see it when we're there.

Kidani was absolutely beautiful - just as pretty as AKL's main lobby! If not prettier, honestly. And the bread service is amazing - I had a conversation with my friend Liz later in the week about the bread service and how it can be a meal on it own!

Alright, I'm all caught up!

Lord do I miss the French Quarter. It's so hard too, because whenever we have the opportunity to try something above a Value, it's a good shot at trying a completely new resort (and attaining our far off goal of staying at every single resort XD) but then... trying something new means not going back to the French Quarter, and that's such a hard decision to make.

Your pictures are gorgeous, and I especially liked the ones from Animal Kingdom. I'm realizing how little time we've spent exploring and taking in the details of that park, especially the new section around the Harambe theater. Goals for August!

Thank you so much! Animal Kingdom is definitely one of my favorite parks for picture taking because there are so many little details! I can't wait for the new section to open up - I didn't like Avatar much as a movie but as a setting it was definitely beautiful and I can't wait to see what they do to bring it to life. (you should have seen me in Cars Land - I have like a million of all the little details, lol).

French Quarter is so, so, so beautiful! We have the same mission to stay at all the hotels too but I don't think I'll ever want to stay at a different Moderate resort.

 

[Kelly Anne]

Part Three

So, we were leaving the park, and we were going to another park.

Now, let's just say this: I and Jey are very used to going between Epcot and Magic Kingdom. We almost always end up at MK at night but we generally take the bus from the hotel in the evenings after changing or we take the monorail from Epcot.

So we automatically got onto the Monorail and went to the Ticket and Transportation Center, thinking we could get to another park from there.





Yeah...we forgot they stopped that like two years ago.

But we did use the restrooms at the TTC and it was nice and clean and empty so, small victories!

So we got back to Magic Kingdom via the monorail and walked back through the people to the buses.

Where did we go? Well, I've already told you, but let's see if you paid any attention.



View attachment 171928



If your answer was Animal Kingdom, you would be correct.

I got randomly selected again, and commented on it (I was partially joking, but it was getting pretty annoying that I kept getting selected and Jey only had been once and we constantly walked in together). The security guard told me they were going to do it for everyone soon but...this was the last day I got selected, so at the very least the universe listened?

Oh well, we were inside and we were very happy!

We were also very close to passing out from dehydration. So we headed over to Pizzafari but got a little side tracked because we saw this guy out and about:







We got our water and sat down at Pizzafari for a little bit, just enjoying the water and the air conditioning. I refilled my cup with water and we walked out to head to our fastpass.

Now, when we were still in MK, we had decided that we were going to get rid of our Thunder FP and switch it for Dinosaur - the Thunder FP was just too late in the day for us to still get to Ak and enjoy the park before our dinner ADR. Our FP for Dinosaur was at 4 so we headed in that direction.



We watched this guy playing for a bit; he was really good and it let me finish my second cup of water. While we were standing there I got a text from Disney saying that Dinosaur was down and we could use our FP for anything else.

So we took them up on that! And headed over to our other favorite!





Once we got off we decided head over to Dinosaur and see if it was up yet. Since it was, we popped into that line. It was only like a 20 minute wait and we were riding around.



We didn't know what to do after this so Jey struck out towards Africa.



She led us to Dawa Bar and kind of stopped, so we walked over to see their specials.

It was actually a perfect time to get a drink - around 5-ish so we had about two hours to kill before dinner but didn't really have enough time to do anymore of the rides or any of the big shows AK has to offer. We had gotten to Africa when the band's set ended so going to Dawa meant we were there when they started again a few minutes later and were able to hear their entire set.



I got the Chenza cooler - tangerine lemonade and Snow Leopard vodka. It was perfect for the heat of the day! (don't let the fact I'm wearing my sweater fool you - it was hot, I just had no place to put it so I had it on the entire time).



Jey got the sugarcane mojito and loved it. I tried a bit of it and it was nice and refreshing.

We had one guy standing next to us on the side of the bar just staring at the bartender and even after she explained that she can only serve people from the front of the bar to keep things orderly he refused to move and finally left in a huff (after another man standing in line asked if the first man would like to get in line in front of him because he wouldn't get served standing where he was). Oh well. Once he left it was a nice relaxing time!

By the time we finished our drinks the band was back so we went over to watch their set





then began to head through the newer areas they had finished last summer in Africa since we hadn't seen them yet



I love all the random sayings all around; they are wonderful










We headed back to Asia to see if the sitar player was out, but first I had to stop and get another picture of the Tree of Life. I love how it looks in pictures



He was out so we listened to his set for a little bit


but by then it was getting close to six and we needed to get out of AK and get to dinner, so we scooted on out of the park and towards the buses.

Any guesses on where we ate dinner?

Following along..... I am also from Massachusetts and while reading came across your picture of Tarzan... Laughing of course because he is also from mass and a very good friend of my nephews....

 

[chiefdragon]

I am having such a good time reading your TR. Cannot wait to read more.

 

[coloredimage]

Following along..... I am also from Massachusetts and while reading came across your picture of Tarzan... Laughing of course because he is also from mass and a very good friend of my nephews....

Haha, oh goodness, what a small world! That's fabulous!

One of my favorite stories about characters in Disney is when I was a sophomore in college I had my picture taken with Rosetta in Pixie Hollow...two years later I meet my friend's older sister and isn't she the friend of Rosetta we had seen that day!

 

[coloredimage]

Don't Feed the Ducks!

We were up by 8 again and got to the Magic Kingdom by 9:05. Jey quickly and easily exchanged her sweatshirt for a new one and then we hopped on over to Starbucks for some coffee.

This was kind of a weird morning for us - and it's also where we basically stopped following our FP's and only used them if we felt like it. It was nice to have them if we wanted them, but it was just as nice to throw the plan out the window and go with the flow. It was also a weird day because we had a lunch ADR someplace we'd never eaten before so we had to take the time leaving the parks into account.

But since we got there right at opening, we didn't have much to worry about!

While we were drinking our coffees, Jey saw Mary Poppins in the garden and tried to get some pictures of her. It wasn't as successful as she'd hoped because of our angle and height (we are neither of us exceedingly tall people) (aka I'm short and she's shorter) but it gave us a minute to stop.

And it gave me a minute to take a quick picture of my outfit of choice for the day:


We didn't have plans to see Move It, Shake It that day and I had initially wanted to wear it on a day when we were but oh well. I am in love with the Spoonful of Sweet ribbon and it didn't come out of my hair at all! My hair's ridiculously soft and fine so barrettes usually don't stay in easily so color me impressed! And the shirt is from Redbubble, who made the Foxes Never Quit shirt you'll see in the next chapter! At the time they were the only shops doing adult Zootopia stuff, specifically Nick stuff, so I had to grab them before my trip!

Anyway, back to the day.

We did have FP+ lined up for the day but even if we decided to use them (confession: we only used 1) we still had at least an hour before they were good and we didn't really know what to do. We walked over to Liberty Square where Jey got a few pictures of Tiana and then we saw that they were opening the Liberty Belle for the day. Neither of us had ever been on it before (I've been on the Mark Twain in Disneyland Paris but it is different) so when she asked if I wanted to do it I was definitely game!

And thus begins the Liberty Belle spam:

 

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Part Two

After we got off of the Liberty Belle we decided the best idea would be to use our FP for Haunted Mansion since we were right there! We got in line and were quickly at the door - the CM who opened the door was fabulous and freaked out the girl standing in front of us, then stayed right behind her the entire time just staring at her until the lights went out in the stretching room. Once the lights were up he was gone, and she was creeped out - I may have been laughing at her. She was about twelve, and her mother was laughing too.

We got off Haunted Mansion after getting a hitchhiker to join us and headed to the Tangled bathrooms for a quick break. After this we basically just meandered around Fantasyland. Jey was kind of hungry but not hungry enough to have a real meal so we were talking about what we could do for a "brunch" since we were having lunch around 1 and it was almost 11. While we were walking Jey saw Suzy and Perla and went to take pictures. I saw Sir Sterling and Lady Llewellyn and started following them.



We finally settled on going over to Casey's and getting some corn dog nuggets. We paid out of pocket for these since we knew we'd want a drink with it and since it was getting pretty hot we wanted to eat inside so once we got our food (since we were paying out of pocket we had to pay separately just to make it easier) we stood at one of the tall tables until someone left and offered their table to us.



Like, I seriously didn't even get to take this picture until we were at the second table that's how quickly they were finished!

This is my only rude guest of the week happened. As we were finishing up our food an older couple came in with their food. The woman loudly complained that people were sitting when they weren't! The guy just went over to the table we had been standing at and pulled out the paper. I had finished eating as had Jey (like, we had barely just finished eating) and we were doing things that are apparently not sitting appropriate - finishing our drinks and answering a message from Jey's mum. She stared straight at us the second she came in she stared at us, watching us finish the food in front of us. The second there was no more food in front of us she came over to us and said "Are you done, we want to sit here." So we stayed until I finished my drink then left. Seriously, it's what we normally would have done anyway, if she could have waited like five minutes it wouldn't have been a big deal.

We brushed them off quickly and shopped up Main Street. It was getting close to noon so we looked through the different stores, heading for the exit to give us some time to get to lunch.

I know, it's silly because we just had a lunch - but hey, at least we were walking it off!

And right before we left we had to stop for, guess what? Move It, Shake It!





I didn't get many pictures because it was moving and they literally stopped us from crossing so it was a bit too close. What this did mean, though, was that they could see us from the floats easily and we got a lot of attention for bouncing around to the music and knowing all the words. And then the float with Nick and Judy and the Chipmunks went by and it was totally my favorite part of the week, because the entire float noticed my hairbow and t-shirt and Nick kept pointing between the two of us. It may have been the first time that specific Nick had seen someone with Nick stuff (I saw someone with the Sparkly Ever After It's Called a Hustle shirt later in the week but never saw any Nick love, just Judy). I grabbed this picture as they went by:



If you look at him, he had been pointing to me just a moment before, is still staring directly at me, and the dancer behind him is cracking up and looking at me too. This ended up being one of my favorite pictures of my trip only because it's so ridiculous.

After the parade had gone past we continued out of the park - though we did nearly turn back around and watch Move It Shake It again (note: this was our third time seeing the dance party this week so far - it was definitely part of our routine).

So, we headed out to lunch!

 

[ariane37]

Mmm, Casey's corn dog nuggets
But even better, Sanaa
We've been there.....3 or 4 times? And love it! I adore the sauce the butter chicken is in, I've gotten that each time we've eaten there. I also absolutely love both Kidani and Jambo and after DH and I stayed there in January it became my favorite resort.

Your pictures from the Liberty Belle are great! Haven't been on that in awhile. And also love the Red Bubble shirt, I'll have to check there for Zootopia shirts. I've ordered a few from there before. I feel the sizes are "eh", except for the baseball jersey I got which fits perfect. Disney Store has one pink adult Zootopia shirt with the Yoga Gnu on it but I don't particularly like it, even though he's cool

 

[Criickette]

Your pictures are just amazing!

 

[MarieLightning]

then we saw that they were opening the Liberty Belle for the day. Neither of us had ever been on it before (I've been on the Mark Twain in Disneyland Paris but it is different) so when she asked if I wanted to do it I was definitely game!

We've never ridden Liberty Belle either, so we'll definitely need to take time for that this summer. I love your pictures from the ride, hopefully we can get some good shots too!

This is my only rude guest of the week happened.

Always good to keep the rude guests interactions to a minimum. I would have done the same you did, too. Like, if I'm still sitting here, I'm not done. And actually, if I'd still had so much as one corndog nugget left on my place when she complained about the lack of seating, I would have taken my sweet time nibbling it. (I am maybe a little too passive aggressive at times).

After the parade had gone past we continued out of the park - though we did nearly turn back around and watch Move It Shake It again (note: this was our third time seeing the dance party this week so far - it was definitely part of our routine).

We haven't watched much of the dance party since they changed the song (at first especially we just didn't feel like the song was nearly as catchy as it used to be), but now that we're a little more accustomed to it, it's not so bad. Plus, it's basically the only place you can see Nick and Judy (and now also Phineas and Ferb ) so worth the stop just for that.

 

[amberg93]

Ugh those Haunted Mansion pictures!!

Way for that couple to just jerks, but then that seems to always happen at one point or another.

Aww that's awesome that Nick acknowledged your shirt!